Where to get bathroom stuff

[8bit]

We're about to do an extension, part of which will include a new en suite shower room off the master bedroom. We got some quotes for the stuff (toilet, shower cubicle kit, wash hand basin, tiles etc.) which we thought was OK but our contractor suggested we have a look online as he thought we'd be able to save a bit compared to the quote. He didn't really elaborate on where to look, though.

Any suggestions as to somewhere to go to pick and order this sort of stuff?

[BlackGT3]

I have recently bought from these people online

http://www.sanctuary-bathrooms.co.uk/

Great service and advice. Everything was delivered when they said it would be.

[Grumpy old git]

I've used these guys a few times, good service and prices. http://www.plumbworld.co.uk

[Swervin_Mervin]

Depends what you're after (i.e. specific brands or not). We're getting ours together at the moment and so far we've bought from Victorian Plumbing, Plumb Nation, Wayfair and Bathshop321. We just scour the 'net for the lowest prices.

Did the same when we had our main bathroom done. It's probably not as cheap as the one supplier route, but we didn't find any last time that were able to get everything were after, and most local to us just didn't seem that interested in our business at all, oddly - most seemed to have certain brand links and weren't interested in supplying outside those brands even if they could.

[Swervin_Mervin]

There's only 2 items we've ordered from them. A specific shower screen we've not seen elsewhere and a Reina rad and valves which they were the cheapest for.

I'm not saying our approach is the best - far from it as it's a bit of a PITA, but locally we've found most merchants are just disinterested in supplying anything that's not their 2-3 preferred brands. It's frustrating!

[Legend83]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Funny, it worked the other way for me - with Quidco etc my total order from Victorian Plumbing, UKBathrooms, QSS Supplies and UKBathroomstore was about £1,500 less than the local plumbers merchant. This was mostly for Burlington, Roper Rhodes and Hudson Reed stuff.

[Legend83]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

It's nice stuff for what I thought was a decent price.

[8bit]

Thanks all for the input, very useful. Maybe I'll put the question a different way just out of interest - we're looking at an en suite with a shower tray in the corner and a screen along one side (so no door), a wash-hand basin on a wall-mounted cabinet, a toilet, a central-heating heated towel rail, electric underfloor heating (not sure of square meterage but it's pretty normal sized room). We haven't gone for very fancy stuff, quote for the whole lot plus gubbins like taps, wastes, shower etc. came to about £3600. Does that sound about right?

[Legend83]

8bit said:

Thanks all for the input, very useful. Maybe I'll put the question a different way just out of interest - we're looking at an en suite with a shower tray in the corner and a screen along one side (so no door), a wash-hand basin on a wall-mounted cabinet, a toilet, a central-heating heated towel rail, electric underfloor heating (not sure of square meterage but it's pretty normal sized room). We haven't gone for very fancy stuff, quote for the whole lot plus gubbins like taps, wastes, shower etc. came to about £3600. Does that sound about right?

I'll check my figures tonight but that sounds a lot. I think I kitted out our en-suite and main bathroom for about £5k - that included freestanding bath (Clearwater), sink and toilet vanity units (RR), Offset shower and tray (Simpsons), associated freestanding bath taps and rain shower head and valve (Burlington), en-suite rain shower (HR), ensuite sink and toilet (V&B) plus towel rads in both.

Unless your figure includes plumbing and fitting?

[dmsims]

As other have said a local can sometimes be better (our one beat everywhere for a Matki shower)

Ebay is also worth a look I found a Bristan shower (which if you dropped it on your foot would break it in two)

It was new old stock and the seals had perished - called Bristan and 2 arrived next day FOC

[Swervin_Mervin]

8bit said:

Thanks all for the input, very useful. Maybe I'll put the question a different way just out of interest - we're looking at an en suite with a shower tray in the corner and a screen along one side (so no door), a wash-hand basin on a wall-mounted cabinet, a toilet, a central-heating heated towel rail, electric underfloor heating (not sure of square meterage but it's pretty normal sized room). We haven't gone for very fancy stuff, quote for the whole lot plus gubbins like taps, wastes, shower etc. came to about £3600. Does that sound about right?

Our en-suite we're buying for includes sink on vanity unit, illuminated mirror, radiator, close coupled toilet, shower tray, fixed shower screen + hinged extra section, and a shower system with ceiling mounted head + slide rail kit.

So fairly similar. Ours, excluding the flooring and tiles is coming in at about £2,000 at the moment, depending on what we go for with the shower tray. Products are Vitra sink, Reina rad, Roper Rhodes mirror, Sagittarius taps and shower bits, Saturn screen, Roca loo and either Matki/Kaldewei/Acquabella tray if that helps.

[Legend83]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Agreed - our 900x3500 en-suite cost nearly £1k in tiles! (We did go up to ceiling height mind)

Don't even ask about the kitchen floor...

[Swervin_Mervin]

Legend83 said:

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Agreed - our 900x3500 en-suite cost nearly £1k in tiles! (We did go up to ceiling height mind)

Don't even ask about the kitchen floor...

Yeah,the tiles for our shower area along (900x1400) are coming in at just over £500

The flooring's relatively cheap from memory at about £80, but the area's only about 2m2.

This is all making me feel a little better - I was cringing the other night when ordering our stuff, at just how quickly the numbers pile up!

[RyanTank]

we were all set for ordering our stuff off Victorian Plumbing and B&Q for tiles, but I made the decision to check out a place here in Wales called Tile & Bath Co, just to see if they'd be better on tile prices than b&q.

Glad we did now as we ordered everything from them instead of different places, they beat or matched prices we'd already got online and my mrs was happy that should there be any problems (which she had read a fair few about VP) we could always go back to them instead of email/call. we spent more than the basic stuff optioned at both B&Q and VP, but swmbo gets the nicer items than the "that'll do" stuff we were going for.

Just need to get a plumber to fit our stuff now!

[8bit]

Thanks for the further input, no that price we got is just for supply. The Mrs. went in to one of the showrooms and got the quote, can't remember who it was but it was one of the national chains that advertise on TV, not Victoria Plumb though. I'll have a look online over the weekend and see if we can save a bit of cash that way, or at a local plumber's merchant.

[HotJambalaya]

I had a very good local bathroom store, but suddenly they stopped being competitive, just flat out refused to give discounts any more. I found another place, but it was a lot further, was technically "trade only" but not if you know what I mean. Ordered a lot from them, quite good, but spent a lot of time running back and forth.

Also used Victoria Plumb, thought they were good, a shower cubicle came without trim and calling them they quickly corrected it and sent out the correct bits. I'd quite happily use them again. I was also pleasantly surprised by the quality of the stuff.

[Swervin_Mervin]

Just to clarify though - Victoria Plumb ≠ Victorian Plumbing despite both being bathroom related

[Legend83]

Swervin_Mervin said:

Just to clarify though - Victoria Plumb ? Victorian Plumbing despite both being bathroom related

Victorian Plumbing website is much better. I did have a delivery issue with them though when they failed to deliver within the standard time and effectively told me I had to pay next day delivery if I wanted my items in time for when the plumber was on site - didn't arrive for another 2 days!

Still trying to get my money back for thst one...

[essayer]

For fitted units and sanitaryware, our fitters had a preferred plumbing trade counter, who had brochures for the stuff they stocked. This meant that they paid on account, collected it, got discount etc, so they were happy; also if anything's damaged in transit or faulty it's not your problem.

Taps, pumps, lights etc, we got everything online. The trade counters couldn't get near online prices for those.

We fitted out a bathroom and shower room with Grohe/Duravit stuff for about £2k.

[Swervin_Mervin]

Legend83 said:

Swervin_Mervin said:

Just to clarify though - Victoria Plumb ? Victorian Plumbing despite both being bathroom related

Victorian Plumbing website is much better. I did have a delivery issue with them though when they failed to deliver within the standard time and effectively told me I had to pay next day delivery if I wanted my items in time for when the plumber was on site - didn't arrive for another 2 days!

Still trying to get my money back for thst one...

Another knack with the Victorian Plumbing website is to also look under the "brands" section if you haven't seen what you're looking for under the other areas of the site. E.G. Reina products aren't listed if you just look under the heating section, despite them having loads of their stock under the brands section

Our rad turned up yesterday after only ordering on Tues night, but then I think it came direct from Reina.